The North Coast times-eagle., August 01, 2001, Page 11, Image 11

NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , AUGTEMBER 2001
from nearly anywhere and serve the whole area, the vtfiole state,
the nation and even international trade
Commercial planners and architects are going out
of their gourds vying with each other in pleasant, original and
attractive design of light industrial parks that not only serve a
business entity, but also serve as community meeting places,
wth park-like malls, meeting and concert rooms open to the
public, libraries, and any number of attractive services that are
assets for the vtfiole area
It appears that little or no thought has been given
to planning for, and obtaining public support of a program of
coordinating existing coastal facilities with an influx of light,
nonpolluting, compatible industries.
Why isn't there a number of furniture factories in the
coastal communities and pleasure and commercial boat builders
along the coast that could have supported a large percentage of
wood mills that have closed?
Why isn't the Oregon coast lined with publishing houses,
clothing and textile factories, research and development labora­
tories, cosmetics, dish and kitchenware, fishing equipment,
marine equipment, and myriads of other enterprises?
The brutally bandied about tourist industry or trade,
as you will, is one of the most neglected and misused of all the
Oregon coast assets. Very little is done to actually make the
coast a tourist attraction of reliable monetary return to the area
On the pain of assassination, I think I find it as presently just
a shoddy, amateurishly promoted gypsy trail for itinerant Wina-
bagos and Airstreams whose nomadic inhabitants have little
concern for contributing to the social, much less economic life of
the coast. The much touted natural beauty of the Oregon coast­
line is precariously protected by a few state, federal and county
preserves, and most of the towns squawk they are going to
wrack and ruin because they look like wrack and ruin.
Frantically the tiny towns up and down the coast
from Brookings to Astoria come up with cutesy ideas for little
pageants, fairs and similar dollhouse activities. Poorly planned,
insignificantly and ridiculously promoted, these miniature events
may draw a handful of out-of-towners, but in absolutely no way
can they ever be considered durable, annually progressive
tourist and cultural attractions of the magnitude to provide for
future economic reliance
And now comes the atomic bomb?
What this coast needs most of all to support tourism,
retired living, prospective industrial expansion — is a concen­
trated real estate and development program. No, the Times
Eagle has not turned into the Realtor's Digest, but facts are
facts; the coast needs an organized, consumer-protecting,
aggressive residential building program. What we have always
objected to is the promiscuous, unplanned and fraudulent sale of
property in defiance of the law and the people, and the erection
of structures on unsound locations
Add now to the picture a restoration of confidence,
support and aggressive public planning toward the welfare of
two other neglected coastal enterprises — dairy farming and
commercial fishing Uncontrolled land speculation, lack of
proper zoning and comprehensive planning, and bickering
among milk cooperatives have driven coastal dairy farmers to
the wall with anger and frustration. Many have left and more are
going. They have been left out on a limb and no one has taken
definitive steps to organize and assist them in planning for a
major role in coastal economic stability.
The squabbling over fishing practices and the lack
of unified public support for this much needed and lucrative
industry has prompted the closing of facilities at Astoria and
their removal not only out of the area but out of the state.
Reversed support for the commercial fishing industry might
have immediate and longrange advantageous effects felt in
every major port facility on the coast. Fish processing factories
and distributor agencies do not stink, they need not be polluting,
they represent a large industry peculiar to coastal areas and are
prospectively a strong adjunct to our economy.
"Our young people are leaving!" howl parents and public
officials. "No jobs, no place to go," retort the despairing youths.
Except for the valiant efforts of a couple of small community
colleges amidst the miasma of local apathy, there is no place
for the Oregon Coaster youth to go for further academic and
vocational training than across the mountains into the valley or
elsewhere. Again, right smack in the economic picture could be
the role played by new universities and colleges in several of the
coastal communities. Special study institutions would attract
thousands of transient students and provide for the creation of
hundreds of new local support functions within the surrounding
community. I can think of no better place for the first great
college than in Cannon Beach. The present Haystack programs
each summer could be but a ludicrous insignificant foretaste of
what a year-around institutional program could provide.
The 1971 mandate given to the Oregon Coastal Conser­
vation & Development Commission has been outrageously pros­
tituted from the beginning. Hardly one person in 100 residents
knows anything at all about what they are doing, much less who
they are. The shadow of doom fell on them within their first six
months as their out-of-state central planning unit dissolved in
conflict of interest accusations and flagrant disregard of public
opinion. They flit from Florence to Astoria holding general and
subcommittee meetings that produce laughably vague and
irresponsible answers to immediate needs.
Public interest groups and councils proliferate daily on
the coast. We have Tillamook Tomorrows and CoastWatchers;
we have Clatsop Environmental Council,Tillamook Homeowners
and Land's End Homeowners; Steelheaders, Granges, boosters,
and gatherings of every sort, all avowed to 'SAVE THE COAST'.
RAPE OF Th IE BIVALVES
BY ROb 1 CRONIN
There were some good low tides last weekend, so Maria
and I went up to the Netarts-Oceanside area to visit some old
and good friends in the mud flat and rocky shore tidelands We
used to live in Netarts, and in those days made regular forays to
observe all the fascinating and beautiful creatures and plants
exposed at low tides
This time we had quite a shock, and almost committed
mayhem up at Short Beach Our first stop was to be the mud
flats at Netarts Bay, but we were outraged by what we saw there
There were literally hundreds of tourists digging up the clam
beds, standing shoulder-to-shoulder and flailing the fragile mud
flats with their shovels and rakes. I have never seen so many
people on the clam beds before, and the destruction they
caused was appalling. The beaches there were nothing but holes
and piles and rocks and mud — the animals that escaped being
dug up were covered over by the piles dug out of the holes, and
few of the diggers had the decency to fill their holes back in.
I was reminded of ground hit by concentrated mortar barrages
We checked the cars lined up along the road along the bay,
and almost all of them were from outside of the North Coast
— Beaverton, Portland, Salem, Eugene, California, almost all
tourists.
It seems to me that one of our best food resources is
being destroyed, with most of the destruction at the hands of
outsiders in the name of "fun" and "recreation " It is common
knowledge that most of the clams dug on the coast by tourists
wnd up in garbage cans at the parks and along the highways;
I have seen garbage cans full and reeking with rotting clams and
crabs, wasted by tounsts who dug them for fun and didn't know
the first thing about their use, or didn't like to eat them in the first
place
Clam populations will not be able to keep up with such
pressure, and may virtually disappear from the most popular
clam beds Local people who love clams or depend on them as
a food source will be forced to go without When we first lived in
Netarts we were obliged by finances to eat shellfish as a major
source of protein; if we had to do that now. we viould starve, for
only at the lowest tides of the year can you find clams in any
numbers.
What are the reasons for such heavy tourist pressure on
our clam beds, rivers and bays? The main one is local business­
men and Chamber of Commerce types have advertised these
resources around the Northwest, to the extent of publishing
maps of clambeds and fishing spots. This has resulted in killing
pressure on our fisheries resources, leaving local residents in
the lurch. 1 don't see why we should lose our heritage so local
businessmen can make a few dimes selling soda and beer. A
few dimes is all, too, because most tourists bong their own food.
After the scary shock at Netarts, we went up to some
rocky headlands to the north, and were treated to an appalling
show of total disregard for nature by three sports fishermen At
first 1 thought they were biologists, seeing their close scrutiny of
the mussel beds. So 1 walked over hoping to talk about marine
biology, and saw that they were not observing anything, but
smashing at the mussels with a clawhammer and shovel, to find
a few mussel wrms (Nereis virens) for bait The totaf area they
destroyed easily amounts to more than 20 square feet, probably
1,000 or more mussels (bag limit for food harvest is 72) The
really scary part is they obviously do the same thing every time
they go fishing — who can know how much area these same
goons have destroyed? Their destruction did not end with their
leaving, for now that huge holes have been smashed in the
mussel communities, starfish may easily invade from the side
and destroy thousands of more mussels, with a resultant loss
of habitat for the other creatures which live among the mussels.
I've talked before in this column about consideration for
and love of nature, how when walking among fragile organisms
one would wear soft-soled footwear and take the greatest care to
do no harm. This obvious disregard for nature we observed, this
lack of consideration that all organisms have a right and a need
to live, made my heart bad and my anger rage
All I can do is hope that those three and others like them
will have second thoughts about their attitudes, and strive to live
in harmony with nature. I believe we should all constantly
appraise our attitudes and actions, finding where our behavior
is contrary and detrimental to nature, and learning how we may
live with our environment, not against it. Once a person realizes
that all of nature is vzxidrous and beautiful and leams to love
his fellow creatures, proper attitudes and practices will result
All that is necessary for this realization is for us to open our
eyes and take a good look around
Ron Cronin wrote a regular column he called CRONIN'S
CREEK for the onginal North Coast Times Eagle, which quite
aptly was its most popular feature Rape of the Bivalves'
appeared in the July 11 1974 issue
PAGE 11
The spirited public interest shown by members of these
groups is more than commendable, but highly self-defeating
when so much energy is expended either not talking to the other
groups or just simply hating them. It wuld be more productive if
these groups established strong liaison with each other and with
the public bodies and agencies that are empowered to actually
make change. Recruiting wider ranges of participation would
also be helpful. Unemotional dialogue between the business
community, governmental bodies and these environmental
groups could lead to dramatic changes of attitude and rapid
reorientation of the coastal economic pattern.
Coastal politicians must understand a new mandate
from the resident citizens and they must be selected on the
basis of precisely how they are going to serve all the needs of
the coast and not just a few out-of-town commercial interests.
Their contributions in the state legislature must be an accurate
record of revitalization of the coast and the results must be seen
in a rapid and sound stabilization of the entire coastal economy
and not just in Japanese cartel expansion or Crown Zellerbach
handouts.
What we are asking is a Declaration of Independence
from a weakened economy imposed on this magnificent coast
by faraway business interests that leaves us prostrate to their
whims and ambitions. We ask that the annual winter of our
discontent come to an end.
PRESENT & FUTURE HOPE
There is a great present and future hope already provid­
ed here. The merchants of Seaside built a convention hall. Little
Cannon Beach is seething with ambition and with each architect­
urally charming building that goes up the town moves toward
becoming a cultural center that might eventually rival the glories
of southern Oregon's Ashland and its Shakespearean center. As
Cannon Beach begins to attract really senous new sources of
creativity it will surely be one of the most exciting places on the
Pacific Coast
Nehalem has found a public cooperation and creative­
ness that is speeding it not only to recovery from the sorry mess
it was in a few years ago, but far ahead into a charming village
that will be a prime asset in future tourism of the coast.
Rockaway reaches both north and south in attempts to
annex adjacent communities: as far north as Bnghton and as far
south as Barview Some citizens are for it and others against
But what is right? Rockaway is faced with tremendous sanitary
and water problems that its present population cannot effectively
handle. Should there be a major system in the area or a bunch
of small ones? The North Tillamook County Sanitary Authonty
has a system that connects Manzanita with Nehalem, Neah Kah
Nie and Wheeler, which erases most of the septic pollution from
the Nehalem River.
From Astoria to Brookings stretches a diverse shoreline
of diverse peoples. Five of the seven counties are entirely
coastal and the other two are politically controlled from the
inland cities of Eugene and Roseburg There is a lesson in
the straddling of the Coast Mountains by Douglas and Lane
Counties. They must contend with and provide for the needs
of both coastal and interior regions. They must regulate the
problems and requirements of both areas in an atmosphere
of cooperation.
We are asking in this article not for the secession of
the coast from the rest of this marvelously sovereign state, nor
alienation from the vibrant productiveness of the Willamette
Valley.
Robert Stanley Need is the original publisher of the
North Coast Times Eagle, which celebrates its 30th birthday
this year, beginning publication May 17,1971. Five years later
the Times Eagle died a premature death from a virus that takes
a large toll of heretical and nonconformist publications After
three years in the crypt the NCTE was rebom 22 years ago on
July 20. 1979
RSN was a verbose and extravagant wnter, editonally
fearless yet barely remembered for his "unique and distinctive
journal of the Oregon coast" that for five remarkable years
strived to "Serve All People." He wrote A Coast For All Seasons'
in 1974